|
Archived News
17th February 2004
COSATU statement on Daily News closure in Zim
Full report of murder, arson at Roy Bennett farm
Tsvangirai message to EU / ACP meeting
SA proposes peace commission for Zimbabwe
EU to renew sanctions against Zimbabwe
Mbeki stance puzzles UK MP
SA minister attacks UK on Zimbabwe stance
Her Master's Voice
Rescuing Bulawayo's street kids
Mozambican traders allege harassment at border
Zim opposition treason trial resumes
New evidence in treason trial
137 Harare girls raped in January: activist
The making of a president
Zimbabwe inflation reaches new high
Zimbabwean crisis affects Mozambican railways
Nhema named in scam
Zimbabwean analyst terms "reshuffling dirt" recent changes in Mugabe's cabinet
Oppenheimers get land back
Misplaced faith in accuser
Zim talks hinge on trial outcome
The dream is dead
Arms ban hits security forces
Zim bans Valentine's Day march
One-fourth of Zimbabwe's population has emigrated
Zim law: 7 days without trial
Sorry, I am too weak to make you tea
Fat cats feed on Zimbabwe's misery
Rest in Peace
A case of true love
Makamba faces 22 forex offences - Judge slams police 'high-handedness'
Outrage over new Zim detention law
Food aid fills erstwhile export warehouse
Zimbabwe doesn't give us a thing
Kondozi workers seek chief's help
Made, Msipa clash over dairy farms
Zimbabwe urged not to execute opposition leader
UN poll plea cancelled by Zimbabwe
Court to make ruling on ANZ’s application
Farm kids struggle to find decent education
Zim farmers boost Zambian tobacco industry
Zimbabwe loses its brains
Nude cricketers held
Top
From EU Business, 10 February
EU to renew sanctions against Zimbabwe
The European Union is set to agree this month to roll over for a third year sanctions imposed against Zimbabwe, notably extending a list of officials banned from the EU, diplomats say. The sanctions were first slapped on the regime of President Robert Mugabe in 2002 for rights abuses and electoral fraud after he retained his grip on power in a controversial ballot victory. The deadline to renew the sanctions is due February 20. But diplomats say that a meeting of EU ambassadors next week will approve the decision, which will be formally adopted on February 19, at a meeting of EU interior ministers. "The current sanctions will be maintained ... The situation in our view is not improving," said an EU source, adding: "These measures are aimed at named individuals and not the people of Zimbabwe." The original ban imposed travel restrictions on top government and ruling party officials, as well as freezing their assets. Initially in 2002, 19 people were listed. According to EU sources, that list will include up to 90 names this year.
As well as renewing the sanctions, EU foreign ministers are also expected to agree a statement on the situation in Zimbabwe at a meeting in Brussels on February 23, officials say. The EU has also imposed an embargo on supplies of arms and military equipment to Harare. Ireland, which currently holds the rotating EU presidency, has dropped heavy hints in recent weeks about the way the sanctions review was going. "There are very serious concerns about the deteriorating situation in Zimbabwe," said Irish Foreign Minister Brian Cowen last month, while declining to forecast what the decision would be. The EU measures against Zimbabwe were eased slightly last year when the bloc agreed to suspend the travel ban for officials travelling to meetings organized by the United Nations or by international bodies based in an EU country. But tensions between the EU and Harare were reflected only last week when European diplomats were temporarily denied entry to some polling stations in Zimbabwe during a parliamentary by-election.
Zimbabwe's international isolation grew last year when it was suspended from the Commonwealth after observers said presidential polls that returned Mugabe to power were marred by violence, intimidation and electoral flaws. In reviewing the sanctions, the EU has been seeking progress in five key areas: an end to all political motivated violence; commitment to free and fair elections; protection of the freedom of mass media; independence of the judiciary; and an end to illegal occupation of properties. "We have not been able to record progress in any of them," said an EU diplomat. "That is why we must maintain the sanctions." Meanwhile the EU, the world's biggest provider of development aid, has sought to target assistance to the Zimbabwean people in the form of medical supplies, food and agricultural aid, EU officials say. But budgetary aid to the Mugabe government to carry out reforms remains suspended. "We are going to cut off aid channeled through the government and focus on restricted aid targeted directly at the population," said one source. The European Parliament issued a stinging resolution on Zimbabwe only last month, saying that Mugabe's regime has "become a worrying example of pitiless oppression of an impoverished and famished population."
Top
From Business Day (SA), 11 February
Mbeki stance puzzles UK MP
International Affairs Editor
A senior British MP who was an active supporter of the anti-apartheid movement in the UK says he is "puzzled" by President Thabo Mbeki's policy of quiet diplomacy towards Zimbabwe and is seeking to learn from the South African government why respect for human rights stops at the Limpopo. UK MP Donald Anderson, a member of Tony Blair's Labour Party, who chairs the influential house of commons foreign affairs committee, said yesterday in Johannesburg that he had expected SA to play a leading role in promoting human rights. Anderson is in SA this week leading 10 MPs from the committee as part of a wide-ranging investigation into UK relations with SA. A report on their findings is due out as early as May. Anderson said quiet diplomacy had hurt investor sentiment in the entire region. He did not discount the possibility that quiet diplomacy could work, but said he still expected that human rights would be a priority for SA. If Britain were to take a leading role in trying to mediate in Zimbabwe, it would play into Mugabe's hands, Anderson said. The UK committee's investigation will include parts of SA's regional role and its relations with Zimbabwe, the New Partnership for Africa's Development, World Trade Organisation negotiations and SA's role in the war against terrorism. Anderson said the inclusion of SA in the "war against terrorism" was in response to concern in the US that Africa represented the "soft underbelly" in the war. The UK committee's reports have considerable influence on the government and often lead to public debate. Anderson said the motivation for the report was to review UK/SA relations 10 years after liberation and it was not in response to any one development in particular. After coming to office in 1997, Blair established close ties with Mbeki but relations have become increasingly strained in recent months over SA's stance on Zimbabwe, and the war in Iraq.
Top
From The Star (SA), 10 February
SA minister attacks UK on Zimbabwe stance
By Jeremy Michaels and Peter Fabricius
Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma says a British "kith and kin" factor is frustrating the political crisis in Zimbabwe. She says the Zanu PF government does not want to be seen to being told what to do by former colonisers. In an interview with Independent Newspapers yesterday, Dlamini-Zuma said the "kith and kin" issue - recently raised by President Thabo Mbeki - was first brought up by the ANC when Ian Smith seized control of Zimbabwe from Britain. It was "still part of the problem" today. "The ANC in the 1960s was also talking about how the Labour government at the time had not responded appropriately, in their view, to the situation in Zimbabwe, where Ian Smith had declared independence. "The British had responded in all other instances like that, but when it came to Zimbabwe they openly said that 'because of kith and kin' they can't respond," Dlamini-Zuma said. "But of course we also know that today land is taken away from 'kith and kin' as well, so that is still part of the problem, in my view." Asked whether the 'kith and kin' issue was complicating efforts to find a political solution in Zimbabwe, Dlamini-Zuma said: "It does, because the Zimbabweans do not want to be seen to be told what to do by their former colonisers."
At a media briefing earlier, Dlamini-Zuma said she saw nothing wrong with the Zimbabwean Supreme Court's controversial decision last week that the country's harsh media law is constitutional. The Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (Aippa) requires Zimbabwean media to register with the government or face closure. It has been widely criticised as giving the Zimbabwean government the power to close down media critical of itself. After repeated closures, the country's only independent newspaper, the Daily News appealed to the Zimbabwean Supreme Court to declare the Aippa unconstitutional because it clashed with the free-speech provisions of the constitution. But last week the Supreme Court dismissed the application by the Daily News. At a parliamentary briefing, Dlamini-Zuma was asked whether it was possible for the country to hold free-and-fair elections - due next year - if the media was controlled by the government through the Aippa. Dlamini-Zuma said the government always accepted the decision of its courts. "I don't know whether you are implying that we should not accept a constitutional court ruling in another country," she inquired."This was not a government ruling, but a court ruling," she added.
Dlamini-Zuma then questioned how the requirement for media houses to register under the Aippa would constitute control of the media by the government. "How does that translate to government control of the media? If the government just wants to register the media? If you are expected to register, you register. That's the law of the land." It was pointed out to her that the law allowed the government to control the media because it could refuse to register media houses it did not like. She insisted she did not see how this constituted an attempt by the government to control the media unless the government was refusing to apply the law. "Unless we can say that here and here and here the government has refused a legal application, and the court has said the government should register that media, and the government is refusing to apply what the court has said (it should do), then we can talk about it." She added that if the constitutional court in, say Britain, had made such a ruling, "you would accept that without question, as you accept many things from that part of the world".
After stressing that she was "not quite the foreign minister of Zimbabwe", Dlamini-Zuma gave an update on the state of negotiations between the ruling Zanu PF and the opposition Movement for Democratic Change. She said that after President Mbeki visited Zimbabwe in December to meet President Robert Mugabe, Mugabe had briefed the Zimbabwean media that Zanu PF was having informal talks with the MDC, looking at various issues. "He said that as soon as they had finished those informal talks, they would go to formal talks and the media would be informed when that happened." Dlamini-Zuma said Mbeki and his delegation had also met with the Zimbabwean opposition "to get their impressions". She said the MDC had told Mbeki that, as a result of the government's near-readiness, they would tell their team to speed up the informal talks. "I think after that, Zanu PF announced they were forming a negotiating commission, which means they are probably preparing for the next phase (of negotiations)". Mbeki said on Sunday that Zanu-PF and the MDC had agreed to hold the parliamentary election in March 2005 - three months ahead of the scheduled June date that would have made the poll five years later than the previous election. But the MDC said in Harare that the election date was not the outcome of negotiations but a requirement of law. The Sunday Times reported that Mugabe would announce a date when he returned from leave later this month.
Top
Comment from ZWNEWS, 11 February
Her Master's Voice
Those who have seen and heard the South African Foreign Minister's outbursts this past week can be forgiven for speculating as to what exactly Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma is for. She is not the architect of South Africa's foreign policy: that is decided for her by people above her pay-grade. She is certainly no diplomat. What is the point of Mrs Dlamini-Zuma?
Whatever her value to the South African administration, for Zimbabwe-watchers Mrs Dlamini-Zuma serves two useful purposes. First, when speaking of South Africa's policy towards Zimbabwe, she speaks the plain unvarnished truth about its true nature. Where President Mbeki and his spokesmen obfuscate and prevaricate, Mrs Dlamini-Zuma gets straight to the heart of the matter. As long ago as 2001, she said: "We won't condemn Zimbabwe." A year ago she said it would be "unrevolutionary" to criticise Zimbabwe. Those two statements alone, amongst all the others she has made, have proved a better guide to South Africa's Zimbabwe policy than anything that has emanated from Mbeki's office.
Secondly, when speaking of conditions inside Zimbabwe, Mrs Dlamini-Zuma undergoes a pole reversal: almost everything she says is the opposite of the truth. Referring to the decidedly unfree parliamentary elections in 2000, she said: "We will not treat the Zimbabwe government as if it was an illegitimate government. It was elected in democratic elections that were free and fair." A year ago, her view of the 'fast-track' land reform policy, that has resulted in nearly three-quarters of the population being fed by international donors, was that it had been marred by "a few administration errors". Most recently, she asked, rhetorically: "Has any journalist been denied accreditation?" Within hours, the head of Zimbabwe's Media Commission had disobliged her, by stating that no Daily News journalists would be registered unless they found a new employer.
So there we have two simple rules of interpretation. What Mrs Dlamini-Zuma says regarding South Africa's policy towards its northern neighbour can be taken at face value. When she speaks on other matters Zimbabwean - about face. Her statement that a solution to the crisis in Zimbabwe is being frustrated by a British policy of supporting its "kith and kin", therefore means that the problem lies not in London, but somewhere closer to home - first Harare, and second Pretoria. Her statement that the Zimbabwe Supreme Court's ruling that the AIPPA media act is constitutional was a court decision, and not that of the government, therefore means the opposite. And then she exploded on Monday at a press briefing, saying: "I am not the Zimbabwe foreign minister." She might as well be. The government in Harare should be decent enough to fund part of her salary.
Top
From IRIN (UN), 10 February
Rescuing Bulawayo's street kids
Bulawayo - It is a few minutes before lunchtime and a disorderly queue of dishevelled youths in ragged clothes has already formed outside the doors of Thuthuka, a drop-in centre for street children in Zimbabwe's second city, Bulawayo. Dozens of youngsters from all over the central business district converge here daily for a free lunch, a bath and a chance to wash their clothes before returning to the city's pavements. Thuthuka has led Bulawayo's initiative to help its homeless children by also providing life skills education and counselling at the drop-in centre, as part of a city-wide taskforce trying to address the growing phenomenon. The taskforce brings together the Thuthuka Street Children's home, the Bulawayo City Council, government departments and the Bulawayo Residents Association, among other interested groups. It has struggled with dwindling donor support at a time when Zimbabwe's humanitarian and economic crisis has added to the numbers of children and youth on the streets.
Last week those efforts received a boost from the UN Children's Fund (UNICEF), which donated Z$27 million to the taskforce to help it complete a survey of the numbers of children in need, as part of a rehabilitation programme known as the Urban Vulnerable Children Project (UVCP). By June the project aims to have a database of street children "for purposes of rehabilitation, including enrolling some of them into schools". The project will also provide the data required for reproductive health care services among street kids in the peri-urban areas of Bulawayo, train HIV/AIDS peer educators and "improve awareness and access to information among the vulnerable children", according to the Bulawayo City Council. Sifelamandla Khumalo, Thuthuka's projects coordinator, said preliminary surveys had shown that, at a conservative estimate, there were between 150 and 200 street children sleeping rough in the city centre and eking out a living by begging. He welcomed the UNICEF donation, but said the problem was growing and becoming even more complex, as a second generation of children was being raised on the streets.
"The street kids problem is revolving, in that we now have the offspring of street children needing the same attention as their mothers," said Khumalo, adding that his organisation was already working with 10 street girls and their children, all of whom were born on the streets over the past two years. "The growing number of children born to young mothers on the streets is a new dimension, which needs a fresh approach. UNICEF would do better to get deeply involved to save and provide for the newly born children," Khumalo suggested. "We also need more support for the extension of counselling, life skills education and a fund specifically for paying tuition fees for some [youths] who will be returned to schools." The street children have long been regarded as a general public nuisance by Bulawayo residents. The older youths are often accused of involvement in petty crime, from cellphone snatching to muggings, housebreaking and theft from motor vehicles. Young girls have also been forced into commercial sex work.
Most of Bulawayo's homeless live in plastic shacks along urban streams and around public recreational parks. The police clearly regard these shelters as general criminal hide-outs. "It may not be the street kids who are into all these forms of crime. Sometimes we find that fugitives on the run from the law take advantage of the anonymity of this community to hide among them. That is why we cannot afford to spare them in any anti-crime sweeps," said Sergeant Maxwell Kombo, a community relations officer at one of the city's police stations. Apart from the youths, a recent addition to the city's street population is a growing number of adult vagrants. "Bulawayo is facing a growing problem of street dwellers in general - we have vagrants of all ages flooding the city centre. Our streets, long known for their cleanliness, are fast becoming streets of shame. But this is a social welfare and human rights issue, in which the city council needs the support from government and donor organisations. UNICEF has taken a commendable lead, and we will be pleased to get the same level of support from other organisations," said Bulawayo mayor Japhet-Ndabeni Ncube.
Top
From IRIN (UN), 9 February
Mozambican traders allege harassment at border
Harare - Attempts by the Zimbabwean authorities to stamp out smuggling across its eastern border with Mozambique have resulted in increased friction with Mozambican traders, who accuse immigration officials of harassment. Mozambican cross-border traders, mostly women, at the Forbes border post told IRIN that they were excessively searched and allegedly sometimes beaten by the Zimbabwean police. A Mozambican trader, Maria Duncas, told IRIN: "The Zimbabwe police and the soldiers are cruel. They ask us to remove our clothes when searching us ... most of the time the body search is done by men. We complained to the governor of Manicaland province, but the soldiers are not changing their behaviour." The traders have threatened to march from the Forbes border post to Mutare - about 30 km away - to protest to Zimbabwean officials over the alleged mistreatment.
Last year the Mozambique government launched an inquiry into claims that a Zimbabwean soldier had shot and killed a trader returning to Mozambique from Zimbabwe. At the time, the governor of Mozambique's western Chimoio Province, Dario Jane, said his government had contacted Zimbabwean officials to verify the killing, and allegations of abuse of Mozambican civilians by Zimbabwean border officials. The acting director of public relations for the army, Sipho Masuku, confirmed this week that a Zimbabwean soldier had accidentally shot a Mozambican national near Nyamapanda border post in December. Masuku said when the incident happened, the trader was attempting to cross the border from Zimbabwe into Mozambique with a group of people while carrying illegal goods. "They were found in the bush and ordered to stop, but they started running away. That is when one of our guards accidentally discharged his firearm and shot him."
Price controls imposed by Zimbabwe on basic foods, such as cooking oil, salt and other products, have made it a cheap alternative for Mozambicans. Traders try and smuggle the goods illegally across the border to avoid customs controls, which the Zimbabwean authorities say is fuelling shortages for local consumers. The scale of the smuggling has reportedly led to sales of more expensive Mozambican-produced sugar dropping significantly. Zimbabwean soldiers were deployed to help customs officials control the border crossing points. In a joint operation between the two countries, several illegal traders were arrested, Masuku said. IRIN was told that some smugglers were caught and taken to Grand-Reef Infantry battalion, about 20 km from the Zimbabwean border city of Mutare, for corporal punishment before being asked to pay about Z$30,000 in fines. Zimbabwean officials have also accused Mozambican traders of hoarding Zimbabwean currency. At the height of Zimbabwe's cash crisis last year, a high-powered delegation of Zimbabwean businessmen traveled to Manica, a Mozambican town about 30 km from the border, to reportedly locate local currency rumoured to be in circulation in the neighbouring country.
Top
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 11 February
Harare - The treason trial of Zimbabwe's opposition leader, Morgan Tsvangirai, accused of plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe, reopened on Wednesday with an aide to Tsvangirai saying they had been taken for a ride by a Canadian political consultancy firm. Welshman Ncube, secretary general of the main opposition party, the Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), gave an account of how he got to know about Dickens and Madison, a Canadian firm that accused Tsvangirai of trying to hire it to murder Mugabe. The firm is owned by Ari Ben Menashe, the key state witness in the case. Ncube said Ben Menashe had introduced himself as a former Israeli spy who was on a first-name basis with several world leaders including the Iranian president and former United States head of state Bill Clinton. He said he was later surprised to learn that the firm had been recently formed with only a handful of employees and no clients. "It was in complete variance with what Ben Menashe had presented to us that his company was successful, had worldwide connections and so much influence," he told the Harare High Court.
He said Ben Menashe had claimed that he had negotiated an exit package for Mugabe with the help of Clinton but Mugabe had supposedly reneged on a promise to take up the offer. "Ben Menashe told us that after the agreement had been sealed, President Mugabe had reneged on it and this had angered ... the US government and in particular Bill Clinton and the financial backers of the deal whom he presented as the Jewish community in the US," said Ncube. Menashe had said that in the light of Mugabe's reneging on his alleged promise, his company had moved to support the MDC and had collected $2-million from the Jewish community, which would be released once the MDC engaged Dickens and Madison as its political consultants in the US and Canada.
Mugabe returned to power after elections in March 2002 that international observers and Tsvangirai said had been rigged. It has been beset by political, social and economic crises since then. Tsvangirai has denied the conspiracy charges, for which he could face the death sentence if convicted, alleging he was framed by the government in a bid to discredit him ahead of the 2002 presidential polls. The state's evidence is based on a secretly recorded black-and-white grainy and partially audible video tape of a meeting he attended in Montreal with Ben Menashe. Tsvangirai said his party had engaged Ben Menashe to help promote its image and lobby the international community for funding, but realised late that it was also hired by the Zimbabwe government to conduct its public relations. Ncube is a University of Zimbabwe law lecturer who joined the MDC in February 2000 after its inauguration in September 1999. Ncube was initially also charged with treason, but the charges against him were dropped.
Top
Comment from ZWNEWS, 12 February
New evidence in treason trial
In the High Court yesterday, Judge Paddington Garwe admitted into evidence key documents from a legal action instituted by the MDC against Ari Ben Menashe currently underway in Canada. The documents completely contradict the evidence given earlier in the trial by Ben Menashe, the Canadian businessman who claims he was contracted by Tsvangirai to assassinate Robert Mugabe. When the trial last adjourned on 28 January, defence advocate George Bizos submitted these documents to the court, asking for them to be admitted as part of Tsvangirai's defence. State lawyers objected, and Judge Garwe said he would issue a ruling on the documents when the trial resumed yesterday. The documents absolutely shatter the already shaky evidence given by Ben Menashe.
The evidence Ben Menashe gave to the court when he appeared in person last year was that the assassination of Mugabe was discussed during EACH of three meetings at which both he and Tsvangirai were present, on their own and with others. The meetings took place in London on 22 October and 3 November 2001, and in Montreal on 4 December of that year. When Tsvangirai was indicted, the State said there were audio tapes of the first two London meetings, and a video tape of the third Montreal meeting - all of which would show that an assassination plot was discussed in ALL the meetings. The audio tapes of the London meetings were never produced in court - the prosecutors said they were inaudible. With difficulty, defence lawyers eventually forced the Attorney General to produce the transcripts of the audio tapes, which were full of gaps, and which showed no evidence of any assassination plot being discussed. Indeed the transcripts were entirely consistent with what Tsvangirai and his colleagues had said all along, namely that the meetings were to discuss a political consultancy agreement, not an assassination plot. Ben Menashe was forced to claim that the discussions regarding the "plot" were not contained in the transcripts and must have taken place during the "gaps" in the transcript.
The video tape of the third meeting was grainy, of poor quality, and itself barely audible in places. It also showed signs of being doctored. At that meeting, Ben Menashe repeatedly used the word "elimination" and spoke of the "agreement" that he alleged had been reached in the previous two meetings. In evidence he alleged that the "agreement" reached in the first two meetings in London was to assassinate Mugabe, because nowhere in the video tape of the Montreal meeting is there any discussion regarding an assassination plot. In other words the third meeting in Montreal does not stand alone evidentially, and a conviction for treason is entirely dependent on the State being able to prove that both the first two meetings had a sinister purpose. Accordingly, Ben Menashe’s verbal assertion that the first two meetings had a sinister purpose is absolutely crucial if the State is to prove Tsvangirai guilty of treason.
In April 2003 the MDC began legal proceedings in the Superior Court in Montreal, where Ben Menashe's company Dickens and Madson is based, to recover US$97 600 it paid to Dickens and Madson for consultancy services which were never provided. In their reply to the MDC's court documents filed in October 2003 (called a "contestation"), Dickens and Madson and Ben Menashe say that "very shortly after Plaintiff (the MDC) contacted Defendant (Ben Menashe and Dickens and Madson) and entered into the contract, it became apparent...that the purpose of the meeting was to seek the overthrow by violence of the Government of Zimbabwe". The contract, accepted by Ben Menashe in his "contestation" document as being legitimate, was signed on 23 October 2001, AFTER the first meeting in London. Therefore, by Ben Menashe's own admission in his legal submission to the Montreal court, assassination was not discussed at the first meeting - in complete contradiction of his evidence given in the criminal trial that the assassination plot was discussed at the first meeting.
The first tranche of payments to Dickens and Madson was paid on 1 November 2001. A second tranche was accepted by Ben Menashe's company on 8 November, shortly AFTER the second London meeting. In the High Court in Harare, Ben Menashe claimed that the contract was merely "a cover" for the assassination plot. Yet in the document submitted to the Canadian court, Ben Menashe contests the MDC's right to recover the money on the basis that the contract was a legal agreement. And he accepted a second payment of money AFTER the second London meeting, at which, he claimed in Harare, the assassination of Mugabe was discussed. The inference contained in Ben Menashe’s "contestation" document is that when the contract was entered into it had an innocent purpose and that likewise when he received the money, pursuant to the contract, he was entitled to hold on to the money because it was a lawful contract. The final inference contained in his "contestation" is the allegation that because it was the MDC that was in breach of the innocent contract (not him), that is to do political consultancy work, he is, as a result, not obliged to return the money. Furthermore, in Ben Menashe’s "contestation" document filed in Montreal, he again contradicts the evidence he gave in the Zimbabwean criminal court. He claims that the second meeting in London on the 3 November 2001 was videotaped, and that the tape was "produced as evidence" in the criminal trial, something that never happened. The only video tape ever produced was of the third meeting in Montreal.
The nub of the matter is that Ben Menashe’s evidence in the treason trial was that the "contractual" discussions were sinister from the very first meeting in London. In his determination to hold on to the money paid to him by the MDC, he has now driven a horse and carriage through his own evidence in the treason trial, by stating in the Canadian courts that the first two meetings were entirely innocent and that he only "discovered" the MDC’s nefarious intentions later. Given that the third meeting does not in itself provide evidence of the "plot", the State case is now in tatters, not that there was any case in the first place. An honourable, professional Attorney General would now admit that this is now "caedit questio" (the end of the trial) and withdraw proceedings against Tsvangirai. However given the fact that this trial has everything to do with politics and nothing much to do with law or justice, a withdrawal of charges is unlikely.
Chronology
22 October 2001: first meeting in London.
23 October 2001: contract signed
1 November 2001: $50 000 paid to Dickens & Madson
3 November 2001: second meeting in London
8 November 2001: $22 196 paid to Dickens & Madson
4 December 2001: third meeting in Montreal
If you would like to read the court documents from the legal action in the Montreal Superior Court, please let us know. The will be sent as Word attachments to an email message - total size approximately twice the size of the average daily ZWNEWS.">If you would like to read the court documents from the legal action in the Montreal Superior Court, please let us know. The will be sent as Word attachments to an email message - total size approximately twice the size of the average daily ZWNEWS.
Top
From AFP, 12 February
137 Harare girls raped in January: activist
Harare - At least 137 young girls were raped in Harare last month alone, according to figures released by a rights activist, who described the figure as "staggering" for a capital of 1.5 million people. A separate study revealed that 18% of Zimbabwean women had been raped in their lifetime, according to Janah Ncube, head of the Woman's Coalition of Zimbabwe. Ncube told scores of protesters who took to the streets today to protest against rape that the figure for the number of children raped in Harare in January came from a clinic where most such cases were treated. More than 90% of reported rape victims are infected by HIV, according to the coalition. Zimbabwe is one of the countries worst affected by the Aids scourge, with at least 3,000 Aids-related deaths per week. "We are really very angry, we are outraged, we want a law to protect us," Ncube said. The protesters included women, men, lawmakers and rights activists. Escorted by police, the group marched from the mayor's office to the city centre park, Africa Unity Square, days after a woman was gang-raped by five homeless people in the capital in the early hours of the evening.
The city's acting mayor Sekesai Makwavarara expressed concern that violence against women had taken root in the country. "Abuse of women has become an accepted phenomenon in our society and we should put an end to this," she said. "Rape is a form of torture and it kills," said the mayor. Last week the 38-year-old woman, walking from her office to her apartment in the city centre, was dragged into an alley and gang-raped by five street men. "Gang rape has become commonplace," said Ncube. "We are now scared even to walk in the streets in broad daylight." She said in the early 1980s, "government had enough police to unleash into the streets of Harare to round up women who were walking unaccompanied by males, claiming that they were prostitutes. Why can the same police not be unleashed on the streets of Harare to round up street kids who have grown up to be street rapists?" she asked. The protesters carried placards urging the government to round up street children and take them to farms. The government has acquired, under its controversial land reforms, millions of hectares of land from whites for resettlement of landless blacks.
Top
From The Financial Gazette, 12 February
The making of a president
Dumisani Ndlela
Reshuffle may be climax of political trickery
President Robert Mugabe's window-dressing Cabinet reshuffle has left Zanu PF secretary for administration Emmerson Mnangagwa with more pawns on the chessboard than the ruling party's chairman John Nkomo and other key contenders in the succession race. But analysts said the reshuffle fell short of giving clues as to President Mugabe's plans for his successor, although it failed to dispel curiosity over Mnangagwa's influence on the ageing Zimbabwean leader. Although sources said Nkomo was personally uninterested in the power fights that have failed to boil over into public debate within the party, a camp led by retired Army General Solomon Mujuru was actively canvassing for his candidature in the event of Mugabe stepping down, more as a way of blocking Mnangagwa's ascension to the throne. But there are strong indications that the first horse for succession in the Mujuru-led camp is Defence Minister Sydney Seke-ramayi. In the event of that failing, the group is understood to be planning to settle for Simba Makoni, a former finance minister ejected from President Mugabe's Cabinet for canvassing for economic policies that were vigorously opposed by other members.
Mnangagwa and Mujuru, a king-maker in Zanu PF's political power game, are understood to have fallen out after President Mugabe ordered the nullification of a deal in which Mujuru was supposed to buy about 50 percent in Zimasco. Mnangagwa, for a long time held to be President Mugabe's blue-eyed boy, is said to have influenced the President into nullifying Mujuru's acquisition of Zimasco, a key mining operation in the country. Nkomo, the third most powerful Cabinet member as Minister of Special Affairs in the President's Office before the reshuffle announced on Monday, has been relegated to a less-than-impressive portfolio as Minister of Special Affairs in the President's Office in charge of Lands, Land Reform and Resettlement. Nkomo gave Mnangagwa a drubbing in the race for the party's chairmanship during the 1999 Zanu PF annual conference. The chairmanship is the fourth most powerful position in Zanu PF after the president and the two vice-president's positions.
Currently, the party has only one vice-president, Joseph Msika, following the death of Vice-President Simon Muzenda last year. As Minister of Special Affairs in the President's Office before the reshuffle, Nkomo ran the affairs of the vice-president. Mnangagwa, who is also the Speaker of Parliament, is said by party insiders to have hatched an alliance with Didymus Mutasa, the Zanu PF secretary for foreign (external) affairs. Mutasa, who has indicated his aspiration for the vice-presidency, bounced back into Cabinet as Minister of Special Affairs in charge of Anti-Corruption and Anti-Monopolies after having left the Cabinet in a 1997 reshuffle. In the event that Mnangagwa ascends to the helm of the party, Mutasa has been tipped to become one of the two vice-presidents, Zanu PF sources indicated this week. Mnangagwa's other key allies in the reshuffled Cabinet include Paul Mangwana, elevated from Deputy Justice Minister to Minister of Public Service, Labour and Social Welfare, July Moyo who has been succeeded by Mangwana and moved to Minister of Energy and Power Development, retired Brigadier Ambrose Mutinhiri who becomes the Minister of Youth Development, Gender and Employment Creation. Mutinhiri is a key ally of Mutasa. Amos Midzi, who has been moved from Energy to the Ministry of Mines, and Dr Chris Kuruneri, the new Minister of Finance who was previously a deputy in the same ministry, are understood to have shifting loyalty between Mnangagwa and Msika. Midzi is believed to back Mnangagwa in Zanu PF's succession battle. But Kuruneri, originally from PF Zapu together with Vice President Joseph Msika, might not rally behind Mnangagwa.
Webster Shamu, a key political figure in Mashonaland West, is also understood to back Mnangagwa, although sources said he was widely being seen as a rising star in the province following his entry into the Cabinet as Minister of State responsible for Policy Implementation. Shamu is a former editor of Zanu PF's mouthpiece The People's Voice. Mnangagwa has also managed to get the support of Elliot Manyika, demoted from the Ministry of Youth Development to become a Minister without Portfolio. Manyika, a secretary for the commisariat in the ruling party, played a pivotal role in positioning Mnangagwa for succession as the party's political commissar by paving way for Mnangagwa's loyalists to take leadership positions in the party's 11 provincial executives. Provincial leaders hold the key to the election of Mugabe's successor at the forthcoming Zanu PF National People's Congress to be held in December this year. According to the party's constitution, the party's leadership is elected at a congress. As Minister without Portfolio, Manyika is expected to devote his energies towards running the party's election engine. Nkomo only has a claim over Home Affairs Minister Kembo Mohadi in the reshuffled Cabinet. Also brought into the new Cabinet is retired Chief Air Marshal Josiah Tungamirai, widely tipped to take over as the godfather of Masvingo Province following Muzenda's death. Tungamirai's alliance is unclear, but he is expected to play a key role in deciding Zanu PF's successor to President Mugabe.
Top
From AFP, 13 February
Zimbabwe inflation reaches new high
Harare - Zimbabwe's official rate of inflation, which dropped 20.8 points in December, came in at a new high of 622.8 percent in January compared with the year earlier, according to government statistics. The Central Statistical Office (CSO) figures showed that the rate of inflation jumped 24.1 points from 598.7 percent in December. In November inflation had stood at 619.5 percent. The rate remains one of the highest in the world, translating to almost three times the January 2003 rate of 208.1 percent. Former Finance Minister Herbert Murerwa in November predicted the southern African country's inflation rate would hit 700 percent in the first three months of this year before climbing down. Central bank governor Gideon Gono in December said measures would be put in place to bring down inflation to below 200 percent by end of this year. Analysts said the jump in January was expected as the slight drop experienced in December was artificial as "the underlying inflationary pressures have not diminished yet." One analyst said the drop in December was "a flash on the pan" as the month was a slow one with factories shutting down for holidays and retailers trying to get rid of their stocks. "The increase in year-on-year inflation was largely accounted for by the increases in the average prices of beverages, bread, cereals, meat, fruits and vegetables," said the CSO. Zimbabwe's average annual inflation has been climbing upwards since 2000 when it stood at 55.9 percent, rising to 71 percent a year later. It reached 133.2 in 2002 before it shot to 365 percent last year. The country has in recent years been plagued by political and social instability as well as severe food shortages, caused partly by drought as well as a controversial land redistribution programme dispossessing white farmers.
Top
From Agencia de Informacao de Mocambique, 12 February
Zimbabwean crisis affects Mozambican railways
Maputo - The central branch of Mozambique's publicly owned ports and railway company (CFM-Centro) has failed to attain its targets in terms of cash collected, and it blames the situation largely on the economic crisis in neighbouring Zimbabwe, its main client, reports Wednesday's issue of the Beira daily "Diario de Mocambique". Of the targeted 445.7 billion meticais (about 18.6 million US dollars), the company collected last year only 426.4 billion meticais, resulting from the handling of various types of cargo along the Beira Corridor. The company's executive director, Joaquim Verissimo, says there are a number of factors to explain this shortfall of 19.2 billion meticais, about 4.3 per cent of the expected sum. But the main factor, he stressed, was the economic crisis in Zimbabwe, which uses the Beira port and rail system for much of its imports and exports. The economic chaos in Zimbabwe means that the country's trade has shrunk, and that it is unable to pay on time for its reduced use of the Mozambican facilities. Currently, according to Verissimo, Zimbabwe owes CFM-Centro 336,000 US dollars, that it is not paying "for lack of hard currency". The debt must be paid in hard currency - CFM stopped accepting the increasingly worthless Zimbabwean currency two years ago.
Furthermore, CFM's counterpart, the National Railways of Zimbabwe (NRZ) "is in no condition to meet the established indicators in terms of 'transit time', the length of time that CFM wagons stay on the other side of the border, and also it fails to make available in time the necessary rolling stock", said Verissimo. CFM-Centro's response to lower than expected income is to reduce production costs. This was partly managed last year, when 216 billion meticais were spent, instead of the expected 232.4 billion, a reduction of about seven per cent. These costs concern the maintenance of equipment, including wagons, locomotives and other rolling stock, and the repair and protection of infrastructures. Verissimo said that to render this area more profitable, the company is striving to create stocks of spare parts "to allow maintenance operations to become regular and continuous", and also should have a procurement system, whereby "whenever there is need of spare parts we may be able to locate the supplier in time to solve specific problems, and always have equipment available".
The company has also decided to get rid of its own body of security guards, since Verissimo believed that it is not CFM's vocation to manage a security force. Instead, this job has been given to a private company, and CFM will no longer have to manage and pay for its own security guards. Any losses through negligence will be charged to the private company, rather than paid for by CFM. Speaking of the dramatic scaling down of the workforce, Verissimo said that the process has been almost completed. Out of a total of 6,014 workers the company once had, CFM-Centro is now left with only 1,148. This has permitted a substantial increase in the wages of those who remain and, through a social reinsertion programme, the retrenched workers have received training in various areas, and many have started their own small businesses. The minimum wage at CFM has now risen to 2,151,000 meticais (about 88 US dollars) - more than double the statutory minimum of 994,611 meticais a month.
Top
From The Financial Gazette, 12 February
Nhema named in scam
Njabulo Ncube, Bulawayo Bureau Chief
Minister sucked into hunting concessions-for-the-boys row
The granting of lucrative hunting and photographic concessions to Zanu PF heavyweights in Matabeleland North, widely seen as a product of influence-peddling and back-scratching relationships, has sparked off controversy that has sucked in Environment and Tourism Minister Francis Nhema. Disgruntled Matabeleland North residents and emerging safari operators this week raised a hue and cry over the awarding of prime hunting and photographic concessions to leading Zanu PF politicians. This comes at a time when the government is moving to allay fears that the land reform programme is only benefiting mostly leading politicians and their cronies. The hunting industry has over the years earned billions of dollars in foreign currency. Although figures for the 12 months to December 2003 were not immediately available, Campfire alone last year made US$20 million from controlled hunting. The industry has also since clinched hunting deals worth $20 billion for the next hunting season, which commences in March.
Miffed residents and safari operators alleged that favouritism could have reared its ugly head in the awarding of Parks and Wildlife concessions with the potential of generating millions of dollars in foreign exchange. The beneficiaries hold long leases on farms in hunting and photographic destinations in and around Dete, Gwayi Valley, Hwange, Binga and Victoria Falls. Information at hand indicates that Nhema, through his ministry, allocated Tuli Farm to Thandiwe Nkomo, the daughter of the late Vice President Joshua Nkomo. Nhema himself is the son-in-law of the late vice president . Webster Shamu, the Member of Parliament for Chegutu, who is the new Minister of State for Policy Implementation was allocated Matetsi Unit Five. Deka in Hwange is jointly owned by Tobias Musariri and Mabel Dete, a Zimbabwean presently based in the United States believed to be close to officials in the ministry. She has since registered a safari company called Asitroc Investments.
Vincent Pamire, the former Zimbabwe Football Association interim boss, and a Manungo, an indigenous businessperson with strong roots in Shurugwi like Pamire and Nhema, share Sengwa. In Matetsi Five concession, seven units in the area were leased to ruling party and high-ranking government officials outside Matabeleland. Unit 1 is in the name of Eddie Kazombe, Unit Two Mike Chidziwa, Unit Three Enos Dube, Unit Four Jacob Mudenda, Unit Five Shamu, Unit Six Army General Constantine Chiwenga and Unit Seven Lovemore Chihota. The two beneficiaries in the Matetsi concession that come from the area are Mudenda, the Zanu PF chairman for Matabeleland North and Dube, a relative and colleague of the late vice President Nkomo. Previously, Nhema's ministry had leased Matetsi Unit Five to Roy Vincent, whose lease expired at the end of December last year.
Nhema yesterday confirmed that his Zanu PF colleagues named in the story had concessions in Matabeleland North but vehemently denied allegations of favouritism. Trying to assuage the general perception that the allocation of hunting concessions only benefited leading Zanu PF politicians, the source of discord, Nhema said everything was done above board. "Everything was done above board. It is on record how they got them. Chiwenga and the others you mentioned went to tender and emerged winners. They attended the auctions for the concessions. It is on record how they got the concessions and how the auction happened," said Nhema. "You can ask all of them." "It is only relatives and party officials with money that are enjoying the fruits of the land reform as far as safari operations are concerned," said a well-placed source. "These are public assets which should benefit locals in Matabeleland. The criteria used smacks of favouritism. Some of these people have concessions elsewhere."
Some aggrieved indigenous business people who are not swayed by arguments that the concessions were awarded through normal tender procedures and had hoped to be doled out concessions at the Parks and Wildlife areas in Matabeleland North have asked their lawyers to write to Nhema about the anomalies in the alleged awarding of concessions in the region. Asked to comment on concerns that most of the people that were awarded concessions were from Mashonaland, the Midlands and other provinces outside Matabeleland, Nhema said: "My brother, I don't know whether we should discriminate, but Mudenda, who is involved in the safari business, comes from there (Matabeleland North). It will need a good discussion on how we awarded the concessions and how people tendered for them. It is not true at all that the concessions were to put to tender. Ask Chiwenga, Mudenda, (Obert) Mpofu, headman Sibanda, they were all involved in concessions. Mudenda in fact, is the chairperson of the Indigenous Safari Operators Association. Ask him how we gave concessions to all those people. Let the people on the ground explain." Contacted for comment Mpofu said: "Talk to the minister, I am not involved and I think the minister will be willing to discuss the list with you.
Top
From SW Radio Africa, 10 February
Robert Mugabe announced a mini reshuffle of the cabinet yesterday. Only one cabinet minister has lost his post while Mugabe has reinforced his cabinet with former senior soldiers and CIO operatives. Former parliament Speaker Didymus Mutasa is now minister of special affairs in the president's office in charge of the anti-corruption and anti-monopolies programme. Mugabe sacked Edward Chindori-Chininga, the mines minister, and replaced Herbert Murerwa, the finance minister, with Chris Kuruneri. Murerwa returns to his former post as Minister of Higher and Tertiary Education. Mugabe retained his ministerial team - which he called the war cabinet - largely intact. Jonathan Moyo is still information minister, Patrick Chinamasa the justice minister and Joseph Made, the agriculture minister. John Nkomo retains special affairs minister in charge of lands, land reform and resettlement. New governors have been appointed for Harare and Bulawayo. Two new ministers of state have been appointed. These are Webster Shamu, who was appointed minister of state for policy implementation and Josiah Tungamirai, who is the minister of state for indigenization and empowerment. Brig (retd) Ambrose Mutinhiri takes over from Elliot Manyika as minister of youth development and Manyika becomes minister without portfolio. I spoke with political analyst Dr John Makumbe about this cabinet reshuffle.
[Makumbe] Well, it's really reshuffling dirt. It's, you know, when you have rubbish in the bin and it's smelling terribly, you just take a piece of wood and you reshuffle it around, it doesn't make any difference. It still smells terribly.
[SW Radio announcer Violet Gonda] [Laughing] So, were you surprised with any of the changes though?
[Makumbe] Oh, yes, I was surprised that, you know, he appoints, you know, Didymus Mutasa, a well-worn out and expired, you know, former minister, former Speaker of parliament and a man who terrorizes people in his own constituency. He appoints him to the cabinet as minister of anti-corruption and monopolies, anti-monopolies programmes. You know, it is really a joke because there are very few people who are, you know, less transparent than Didymus Mutasa.
[Gonda] What about Joseph Made? He has lost the lands portfolio and that's been given to John Nkomo. Is this a demotion or what? What is really happening there? What's your take on this one?
[Makumbe] No, it's not a demotion. He still has the agriculture and he now also has the resettlement. Now the resettlement is now in both John Nkomo's third portfolio [laughing] and in Made's portfolio, which shows you the kind of brain that was doing the designing of the cabinet, because the, you know, Lands is taken from agriculture, but resettlement is now in both agriculture as well as in lands. It's a bit of a distortion, it's a bit of, you know, senility.
[Gonda] And what about Elliot Manyika? He becomes minister without portfolio. Does this mean that he wasn't really doing well with the militia because that was - the militia were under his ministry?
[Makumbe] Well, I think he has not really been demoted as such. He is the - the phrase minister without portfolio is simply because Mugabe doesn't want to openly call him minister of the commissariat. He is going to even concentrate more on the militia and on ensuring that more hooligans and hoodlums are trained to beat up people as we get to the 2005 election. But of course Mugabe couldn't have called him minister of the commissariat because that would have been obvious.
[Gonda] And is it worrying that now that ministry is going to be led by a retired Brigadier Mutinhiri?
[Makumbe] It is very worrying because this is, again, part and parcel of the militarization of the government, which Mugabe has been, you know, pursuing for some time with the appointment of military personnel into Noczim [National Oil Company of Zimbabwe], into the GMB [Grain Marketing Board], into the governorship for Manicaland, and now it is also gone to the ministry of employment creation, youth, and it is obvious that this is going to be a double-effort with, you know, that minister and that ministry with Manyika's ministry working very hard on the commissariat, and on ensuring that the Green Bombers [Zanu PF militia] do their job, the war veterans do their job and even the military are brought in to, you know, subdue the people.
[Gonda] And I understand that Harare and Bulawayo now have governors. Are these really necessary since there are mayors in these areas?
[Makumbe] These are superfluous positions because they have nothing to do, because there are executive mayors in both Bulawayo and Harare, and even as we talk I think the two guys appointed wonder where their offices will be. They can't be at the town houses, they can't be at the civic centres. They probably will be in the Ministry of Home Affairs or local government. It is really superfluous. It is really jobs for the boys, that's all it is.
[Gonda] And the two new ministries, one that's going to be led by Webster Shamu and the other by Josiah Tungamirai, I think Tungamirai is going to be the Minister of State for Indigenization and Empowerment, and Webster Shamu is going to be the Minister of State for Policy Implementation. Are these also necessary?
[Makumbe] These are totally unnecessary. It's like saying all the other portfolio ministries are not really concerned about policy implementation. How are they running? What do they do if it is not policy implementation? And then the indigenization and empowerment for Tungamirai in what sense? All ministries, all government departments should be empowering everybody, should be empowering all Zimbabweans, whether indigenous or not. These are really, again, jobs for the boys. Tungamirai is, of course, being rewarded for behaving himself and allowing, you know, [late Vice-President] Muzenda to hold on to the Gutu North Constituency and then winning this election. So he's being rewarded duly. Webster Shamu is obviously a well-known hooligan of the party. He's one of those Zanu PF hoodlums who will beat up a person and then say whom did we beat up, you know. And he is being brought in preparation for the 2005 election.
[Gonda] And Chris Kuruneri takes over, you know, has taken the finance ministry from Herbert Murerwa. Can he handle that job?
[Makumbe] I don't really think so, but I think he is probably better than Herbert Murerwa, who really knew precious little about the ministry of finance. Kuruneri at least knows a few things, at least he knows what GNP means. But he is as much immersed in the, you know, scandals that are going on to do with businesses and shady deals as any of the lot in Zanu PF.
[Gonda] And what about Chinori-Chinenga, who has lost his job? He is the only minister that has lost his job. What is your take on this?
[Makumbe] I think he was a clear non-performer. He did nothing while he was in charge of mining. People were smuggling gold and taking it, you know, out. They were smuggling several mineral ores - unprocessed and, you know,dragging them out of the country. He was a clear non-performer and he deserved what came to him.
[Presenter] Political analyst John Makumbe.
Top
From The Financial Gazette, 12 February
Oppenheimers get land back
Njabulo Ncube, Bulawayo Bureau Chief
The powerful and influential Oppenheimer family, which controls Anglo American Corporation, is getting back part of the land seized during the chaotic land reform as government has, in a volte-face, started removing landless peasants who had settled at one of the South African family's properties in Matabeleland South. Hundreds of landless peasants settled on Debshan Ranch, a huge property belonging to the super-rich South African family, have been ordered off the farm ostensibly in line with the recommendations of the Charles Utete land audit report. Analysts said President Robert Mugabe, with his political back firmly against the wall, has been forced to eat humble pie in a thinly veiled attempt to win the support of one of Africa's wealthiest families and bolster prospects for attracting elusive foreign investment. But in the process, the Zimbabwean leader risks losing credibility ahead of the 2005 Parliamentary elections, particularly among the poor peasants who had abandoned their homes in search for more promising lives on the farms at the height of the farm invasions in 2000.
Information obtained by this newspaper indicates that government officials last Thursday visited Debshan Ranch and ordered close to 100 settlers at the property to immediately vacate a certain section of the ranch not listed as designated. "People must vacate some parts of this property (Debshan) because the government has not acquired the entire ranch under the resettlement programme," said Peter Mandebvu, the district administrator for Matabeleland South. The Utete report, made public for the first time by The Financial Gazette, recommended the removal of settlers from properties covered under bilateral agreements, agro-industries and where people settled on undesignated properties, among other things.
In 2001, the government forcibly acquired 35 000 hectares from the Oppenheimer-owned Debshan Ranch and later managed to successfully negotiate for a total of 65 000 hectares to resettle landless peasants. Officials said then the Oppenheimer family owned land in Zimbabwe that is almost the size of Belgium, a charge vehemently denied by the family, which argued that it owns only 137 314 ha of land in the country. Belgium's total area is 3 051 900 hectares. Government sources that attended the meeting addressed by Mandebvu in Insiza last Friday said the government was now content with the 65 000 hectares offloaded by the Oppenheimer family. The family controls two of Africa's biggest and richest companies, Anglo American Corporation and De Beers, the continent's most powerful diamond mining giant. In Zimbabwe, they are believed to have owned the largest tracts of land by a single family.
Mandebvu, together with a host of other government officials, visited Insiza district last Friday and addressed several meetings dwelling specifically on the progress of the land resettlement and the implementation of the Utete land review recommendations. The peasants that had been on the property since 2000 told this newspaper in separate interviews that they were not happy with their removal. "We were the first people to invade this big ranch and Vice President Joseph Msika visited us before the parliamentary elections in 2000 to see how we were coping. Now we are moving at the shortest notice. We have not harvested our crops. This is unfair," said Simon Zuze, a spokesperson for the invaders who trooped into the Oppenheimer property all the way from Masvingo. Debshan ranch, along the Bulawayo-Harare highway, cuts through four provinces - Matabeleland North, Matabeleland South, the Midlands and Masvingo. According to the Utete report, which has since been made public, about 134 000 people have been resettled on A1 and A2 scheme, very different from 300 000 people continuously being parroted by the government officials.
Top
From News24 (SA), 13 February
Misplaced faith in accuser
Harare - A senior Zimbabwean opposition figure says he didn't doubt the credentials of a Canadian political consultancy that later accused opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai of plotting to kill President Robert Mugabe. Testifying in court at the treason trial of Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) leader Tsvangirai, who faces the death penalty if convicted, MDC official Renson Gasela said he placed faith in the firm because he knew one of the directors. Gasela, a lawmaker and the MDC's shadow agriculture minister, said he had known Dickens and Madison director Rupert Johnson since 1991. Ari Ben Menashe, the owner of the firm, is now alleging that Tsvangirai plotted the assassination of President Robert Mugabe ahead of 2002 presidential elections, which the MDC and the international community say was seriously flawed. "My impression was that he (Johnson) was a solid businessman with international repute," Gasela told the Harare High Court. Ben Menashe is the key state witness in the case. The state's evidence is based on a secretly recorded grainy and partially audible videotape of a meeting Tsvangirai attended in Montreal with Ben Menashe. Gasela said that in August 2001, he received a telephone call from Johnson, asking him about the political situation in Zimbabwe and then expressing an interest in helping the MDC. The two later met in London where Gasela was given a business card by Johnson which showed he was a director with Dickens and Madison. Gasela said Johnson had indicated that his company was much more interested in assisting the MDC in the post-electoral period as he was convinced Tsvangirai would win the 2002 presidential polls. "I expressed some interest and I told him I would report to the leadership of the party," said Gasela. The MDC then engaged Ben Menashe to help promote its image and lobby the international community for funding, but said it realised later that it was also being used for a similar purpose by the Zimbabwean government.
Top
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 13 February
Zim talks hinge on trial outcome
Dumisani Muleya
Harare - As the treason trial of Morgan Tsvangirai, leader of Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), heads towards its conclusion, its effect on talks between the MDC and the ruling Zanu PF is likely to loom large. Tsvangirai is charged with plotting to assassinate President Robert Mugabe. The charges relate to a meeting in Montreal that was secretly videotaped by shadowy Canadian publicist Ari ben-Menashe, who had been contracted by the Zimbabwe government. The trial, which began in February last year, resumed this week. The case is likely to have a major effect on the talks that are widely expected to restart soon, partly as a result of South African President Thabo Mbeki’s prodding. But much will depend on how things pan out over the next few weeks. If Mugabe’s government succeeds in its attempt to nail Tsvangirai, the MDC will probably be significantly weakened because it risks being thrown into turmoil just ahead of next year’s parliamentary poll. This will leave Zanu PF more secure in a campaign that has already seen the harnessing of the machinery of state to its powerful bandwagon. Consequently, power relations between the two parties would shift and so, effectively, would the nature and outcome of any negotiated settlement.
The ruling party has already expressed its preference for MDC secretary general Welshman Ncube as a negotiating partner. If Tsvangirai’s treason trial proves a trump card for Zanu PF, the MDC could use its litigation against Mugabe for alleged electoral-rigging as a bargaining chip. Zanu PF is distinctly unhappy at the prospect of that particular can of worms being opened in public. As a result, Mugabe can accept a deal that frees Tsvangirai while at the same time conferring legitimacy on his own buffeted stewardship. Mugabe’s ego is badly battered because of the dispute over his 2002 re-election. These two cases place the proposed talks in jeopardy, yet at the same time they offer the opportunity for dialogue. The two parties are both hard-pressed for a solution to the political and economic crisis besetting the country. Inflation stands at 600% and unemployment at 70%. But neither is capable of finding a viable solution alone. There is also to some extent a political balance of power. Zanu PF commands the instruments of coercion while MDC holds sway on the moral high ground. Mugabe may be secure in his rural fiefdom, but Zimbabwe’s teeming cities are solidly MDC.
Informal talks between Justice Minister Patrick Chinamasa and Ncube are thought to have established some common ground in terms of constitutional reform. But agreement on the modalities for free and fair elections is still way off. The MDC wants an independent electoral commission - as distinct from a body answerable to Mugabe - and access to the public media. It wants the military removed from its role in polling supervision and Zanu PF’s thuggish militias disbanded. Zanu PF is currently dragging its feet over talks for that reason. It hopes it can get by without too much painful structural change. If the government fails in its arraignment of Tsvangirai, the MDC might emerge from its predicament more confident about the talks. Tsvangirai would come out reinvigorated and hardened by his ordeal, even though further charges are pending. Some political observers believe it would take at least three months of serious talks to resolve the Zimbabwe deadlock. When the new Constitution is in place and the democratic space has been opened to unfettered political activity, the MDC says it would want fresh parliamentary and presidential elections held concurrently.
The MDC and civil society are adamant about resisting the trap of a government of national unity, which Mbeki is touting. What they want is free and fair elections. Although some observers say Zanu PF does not want electoral reforms because it is scared of defeat in free and fair polls, it is possible that during talks the ruling party may prove more amenable to reform if it sees some sort of change as inevitable, including the stepping down of its octogenerian leader. A statement in this regard would prove salutary. But Mugabe shows every sign of hanging on. His reported assurance to Mbeki that he will not use repressive security and media laws has proved less than binding. Where one law has proved off limits, others from the colonial armoury have proved useful. Introducing and consolidating democratic institutions should not be difficult for Zimbabwe because the country is democratic in form but totalitarian in substance. In other words, democratic institutions exist but they are stuffed with authoritarian matter. It is that contradiction that needs to be resolved if and when the two sides meet, perhaps next month.
Top
From IPS, 13 February
The dream is dead
Wilson Johwa
Bulawayo - It was once celebrated as a rare African success story - an example of what committed leadership can do. Education for all was the policy Zimbabwean authorities pursued diligently for much of the first decade since independence from Britain in 1980. The goal was to extend education to the previously disadvantaged black majority. As a result, scores of schools were built and the training of thousands of teachers speeded up. The investment did not take long to bear fruit - by 2000 Zimbabwe had achieved an adult literacy rate, according to the UN Children's Fund (Unicef), of 93%, the highest in sub-Saharan Africa. Sadly, those classroom gains are currently in jeopardy, threatened by triple digit inflation and political impenitence. One urban primary school says at least half of its more than 1 000 pupils cannot afford fees, while a government directive says learners must not be sent home. The very poor, including Aids orphans, can apply for government help. But such dues are always too little, too late. As a result, the school is permanently entangled in a never-ending cash crisis. Four classes have to share an average of 20 text books. There is no money to replace even the 100 Zimbabwean dollars worth of exercise books stolen during last week's burglary. Parents cannot come to the school's rescue either. Four years of economic contraction and increasing inflation have left many unemployed and impoverished. They struggle to buy basic foodstuffs, let alone pay school fees. "If you talk of raising levies, parents will tell you the government has directed there should be no increase," says the exasperated school head. Unwilling to endure the frustration of running a school with no resources to even cover its water bill, she has decided to quit. "This just gives you grey hairs," she shrugs.
The situation is equally dire in most urban schools, and often worse in rural areas. Here, not only are parents too poor to finance non-salary recurrent costs of education, but teachers have the additional burden of being targeted by President Robert Mugabe's marauding youth militia and war veterans. Witness Ncube, a teacher at Matshetsheni Primary School in Nkayi, Matabeleland North province, says he fled after three encounters with war veterans, who accused him of preaching opposition politics to students. Like multitudes of other teachers, who have turned their backs on low salaries and poor conditions, he is planning to go to Britain. Meanwhile, three months after his departure, the school still has not found a replacement. Ncube's problem is not uncommon. Teachers, considered key informants and community leaders in rural areas, have been targeted on a regular basis. Brian Raftopolous, an associate professor at the Zimbabwe Institute of Development Studies, says in "its attempt to deal with this growing economic disaster and the severe loss of political legitimacy", the ruling Zanu PF party has attacked its own state structures, including those in the educational sphere.
This is one of the many reasons the country's education system, long trumpeted as President Mugabe's enduring achievement, is on its knees. To appease a restless population the government has put a freeze on school fee increases, despite inflation of 600%. In the last two weeks the Ministry of Education, Sport and Culture suspended 50 school heads and dissolved a similar number of parents' school development associations for "raising fees and levies without government approval". According to a government-controlled daily, the schools - most of which are privately run - will be charged under the Education Act, "which means that if they fail to comply with the Ministry's directive they risk being closed down". Unable to balance their books but still expected to provide a service, it remains to be seen how schools will avoid insolvency. Yet Mugabe's educational achievements had extended to tertiary education, where tens of thousands of college and university graduates were poised to run what was once one of Africa's most viable economies. Ironically, that same education has also equipped its beneficiaries with the skills many are selling in neighbouring countries, and overseas.
Compared to one university at independence, Zimbabwe now has six state universities, with another being planned. The quantity of institutions has increased, but hardly the same can be said for quality. Despite being only 12-years old, the National University of Science and Technology (Nust) had acquired a reputation for producing well-rounded, much-sought-after graduates. It too has been unable to prevent experienced lecturers leaving for positions, often better-paid, with universities elsewhere. The education crisis has reached beyond class size and staff, pulling at the university's very foundation. The Nust campus consists of a few impressive concrete structures interspersed with bush. There is no sound of concrete mixers or workmen's chatter. University spokesperson Felix Moyo says due to inflation "money runs out earlier than projected". There is little funding for capital projects. Mugabe himself captured the essence of the money problem last November, after getting an honorary degree from a new state university in Gweru, central Zimbabwe. He remarked that it was the first time he had received a degree "from the bush". Mugabe was capped by a university with no buildings of its own. Three years after the foundation stone was laid, very little work had been done. There simply is not enough money. Since independence, education ministries were often allocated the biggest share of the national budget. But economic consultant John Robertson says there has been a shift, more recently, as "it would seem they weren't given the money allocated to them." He says it appears that when the government overspends in one area, it makes up for the shortfall by taking from the education and even the health ministry allocation, hoping donor funding would plug the hole. Furthermore, says Robertson, the money allocated "is not adjusted for inflation".
The mix-up of O and A level results early last year caused public concern, amid reports of corruption within the Zimbabwe Schools Examination Council. Previously run by Cambridge University in Britain, O and A level examinations were localised in 2001 mainly to save on foreign currency. At the oldest university, the University of Zimbabwe, under-paid lecturers withheld examination results, resulting in thousands of students being unable to graduate. The students, meanwhile, exhaust their inflation hit government grants in days, leaving them to their own devices the rest of the year. Education has clearly been a major casualty of the Zimbabwe crisis. Interestingly, the number of students from neighbouring Botswana has increased, says Hugh Henstridge, campus director of Speciss College, a favourite among the Tswanas. "There's a big gap in tertiary education in Botswana," he says, attributing increased enrollment to the college's solid reputation in Botswana. The weak Zimbabwe dollar has also made it cheaper for predominantly middle class parents to send their children to Zimbabwe and not South Africa. However, as they make their way into Zimbabwe, Tswana parents cross paths with the growing number of wealthy Zimbabweans searching for quality education for their children outside the country. Raftopoulos says while this quantitative growth of education has been impressive, several problems confront the future of educational development in Zimbabwe. These, he says, include the absence of a comprehensive policy framework as well as gender equity, finance and access. About 15% of children remain out of school, Raftopoulos says. The other challenges include the relevance of the curriculum which, currently, is considered unresponsive to the labour market and the high dropout rate. For Robertson, however, the issue is that Mugabe prefers no growth to growth he cannot control.
Top
From The Zimbabwe Independent, 13 February
Arms ban hits security forces
Shakeman Mugari
European sanctions on Zimbabwe have begun to take their toll on the country's defence system, with revelations this week that Zimbabwe's security forces are phasing out machinery manufactured in European Union states, the Zimbabwe Independent has established. The Independent heard that the army and the police have begun to phase out vehicles, planes, guns and other military hardware manufactured in Europe as the country cannot obtain spare parts under the sanctions regime. Parliament heard last month that the re was a need to engage dependable suppliers "in the face of crippling sanctions by erstwhile suppliers like the United Kingdom". Before the diplomatic fall-out Zimbabwe received British-manufactured Hawk fighter/trainer planes, bombs and missiles. These planes are no longer in use after Britain imposed an arms embargo two years ago barring Zimbabwe from receiving any military assistance from the UK. Government is mulling the purchase of aircraft and other equipment from China, one of Zimbabwe's most trusted allies, according to a parliamentary report.
The Independent has also established that the famous police Land Rover Defender trucks which were supplied under a bilateral agreement with Britain are also being phased out. That arrangement is now on ice after Zimbabwe fell out with Britain over human rights abuses. Most of the Defender trucks have since ground to a halt as the police cannot obtain spare parts from Britain. The ZRP has since last year been purchasing Mazda pick-up trucks to replace the Land Rovers. ZRP spokesman, Assistant Commissioner Wayne Bvudzijena last week said the purchase of new vehicles had nothing to do with sanctions. "The phasing out has nothing to do with sanctions," said Bvudzijena, "In fact the sanctions are coming when the Defenders are nearing the end of their lifespan. Whether there are sanctions or not it won't dent our operations. Just like what happened with the Santana, the Defender is being phased out due to age. Our fleet is between three and five years old and we should realise that the vehicles are operating 24 hours a day." However, dealers who service Land Rover Defenders said the vehicle has an average lifespan of 10 years. Many are in service much longer.
The Independent also heard that the army was struggling to service Acmat and Steyr troop carriers purchased from France and Austria respectively. The first delivery of the trucks was around 1998. However, ZDF spokesperson Col Ben Ncube disputed that sanctions were affecting the armed forces. "The Hawks were affected way back when we were in the Democratic Republic of Congo," said Ncube. "It has nothing to do with the sanctions. It is not even a new issue to Zimbabweans. How is that news?" Ncube said the current fleet of troop carriers purchased from Europe was still operational. "All we can say is that the Steyr and Acmat are still functioning and we are happy with them," said Ncube. Asked whether sanctions had affected the ZDF in any way, he declined to comment saying it was not a public issue. The ZDF has also resolved to phase out British-manufactured minor accessories such as radios and photographic equipment. So far ZDF has acquired a new fleet of Mazda T35 three-tonne trucks from Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries. Ncube however said these were not replacements for military vehicles. "The T35s are not a replacement of the current fleet, they are just an administrative vehicle. They are certainly not for carrying troops," he said. An official at Willowvale Mazda Motor Industries confirmed that the police and the army had acquired a number of Mazda B1800 (LWB) vehicles. Since November last year government orders accounted for about 38% of Willowvale's vehicle sales, said the official. Police currently have about 1 500 vehicles but need more than 7 000 to operate efficiently.
Military sources this week said Zimbabwe used to get helicopter spare parts from Italy. The EU slapped Zimbabwe with an arms embargo in 2002. The sanctions effectively prevented Zimbabwe from receiving any military aid from EU countries. In December the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Defence and Home Affairs after its tour of defence installations and barracks around the country concluded that Zimbabwe needed to look elsewhere for military equipment. The report exposed the effects of the sanctions on functions of European-made aircraft, vehicles and ammunition. The committee, under the chairmanship of Zanu PF Mt Darwin MP Saviour Kasukuwere, admitted in its report that sanctions had adversely affected the security forces. The report "noted the need for the Airforce of Zimbabwe to engage dependable suppliers of equipment in the face of crippling sanctions by erstwhile suppliers like the United Kingdom which has seen a number of aircraft grounded due to lack of spares," Kasukuwere told parliament last month. As a follow-up to the report, Kasukuwere together with MDC Mutare MP Jairos Mutsekwa of the same committee visited China on a sponsored trip to learn about the country's military industry. The three-member delegation was in China for five days. Kasukuwere said in his report to parliament the tour "highlighted the kind of technology that Zimbabwe could import for the use of defence forces".
Top
From SAPA, 14 February
Zim bans Valentine's Day march
Scores of heavily armed riot police on Saturday stamped out an attempt by a women's organisation to hold a St Valentine's Day march for peace, love and reconciliation in Zimbabwe's strife-ridden society, threatening to shoot the women if they defied the ban, organisers said. Jenni Williams, spokesperson for Women of Zimbabwe Arise, a group pressing for women's political rights, said demonstrators arriving at assembly points in the capital, Harare and the second city of Bulawayo were roughly hustled away by police. Marches planned in other centres were also abandoned, she said. Police told WOZA lawyers on Saturday that they would not permit St Valentine's Day demonstrations under any circumstances. "They threatened to shoot to kill if we went ahead," she said. "They have been offered love, but they have chosen hate." Police comment could not be obtained. On St Valentine's Day last year 48 WOZA members were arrested in Harare and 19 in Bulawayo when they took to the streets, offering roses to passers-by and holding banners urging non-violence and tolerance. The ban on today's attempted demonstration occurred as shops in Zimbabwe's main urban centres did a roaring trade in red roses, valentine cards and risque underwear, and middle-class Zimbabweans filled the columns of newspapers with love messages. Williams said police had objected to critical remarks about President Robert Mugabe's government in WOZA's most recent newsletter. Since April 2000 Zimbabwean authorities have banned all public demonstrations meant to protest against Mugabe's rule. Police routinely respond to any sign of anti-government gatherings with teargas, baton charges and mass arrests.
Top
From Associated Press, 15 February
One-fourth of Zimbabwe's population has emigrated
Diaspora: Repression by the government and an ongoing economic crisis have caused an exodus from the troubled nation
Harare - Verging on one-fourth of the Zimbabwean population - nearly 3.4 million people - are living abroad, many of them having fled violent state repression and the nation's deepening economic crisis. The figures were compiled by a central bank advisory board formed to explore ways of getting "Zimbabweans in the Diaspora" to send hard currency home, board member Erich Bloch said Friday. Many Zimbabweans support the families they left behind but usually send money through black-market currency dealers who pay out in local currency and keep the hard cash offshore. Reserve Bank Governor Gideon Gono in December said he was launching a program to try to channel that hard currency through state coffers. Bloch said the advisory board found there were 1.1 million Zimbabweans working in Britain, the former colonial power. Of those, some 800,000 were illegal immigrants. More than 1.2 million were working in neighboring South Africa and at least 100,000 were in Australia. The rest were in Canada and scattered throughout Europe, the US, southern Africa and other parts of the world. Bloch, an independent economist and deputy president of the Zimbabwe Institute of Chartered Accountants, heads the drive to persuade Zimbabweans to repatriate their money legally. He said it was estimated that up to US$400 million could be paid annually into the central bank for onward payment in local currency to families in Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe, suffering its worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, is facing acute hard currency shortages. Bloch said a range of incentives for Zimbabweans abroad was being considered. "The exchange rate will have to be close to what they are getting through other channels. They have to be satisfied there is no risk as there would be in the illegal market and that their families will be very promptly paid," he said. The US dollar buys about 4,200 Zimbabwe dollars on the black market. The official exchange rate is fixed at 824-1. Assurances were also needed there would be no double taxation and illegal immigrants would be guaranteed confidentiality. Provisional results of a national census last year put the country's population at 11.5 million but acknowledged large numbers left the country, many to seek jobs, and others may not have been counted. Zimbabwe's population is generally accepted to be 12.5 million. As many as 1 million people may not have been counted in the census after disruptions in the economy and the seizure of white-owned farms forced them to move from their traditional homes. The official results of the census are to be released later this year. As well as shortages of hard currency, Zimbabwe is facing acute shortages of food, gasoline, medicine and other essential imports.
Top
From News24, 14 February
Zim law: 7 days without trial
Harare - Zimbabwe's government has formalised anti-corruption regulations giving it the power to detain people for seven days without trial, a local newspaper reported on Saturday. The state-owned Herald said the Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act covered among others corruption, money laundering, the export of foreign currency and the unauthorised disposal or dealing in gold or precious stones. "No court shall admit such a person to bail for a period of seven days from the date when an order or warrant for this further detention was issued," the newspaper said. Zimbabwe lost millions of dollars last year from the smuggling of gold outside of the country, prompting President Robert Mugabe's ruling Zanu PF to crack down on corruption. Gold is southern African country's top foreign exchange earner. The police are currently holding businessman and ruling Zanu PF member James Mkamba, who was arrested on Monday on corruption charges. The opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) on Saturday criticised the new regulations, saying they were designed to circumvent fundamental rights contained in the Zimbabwe constitution. "The arrest of Messers Chiyangwa and Makamba and these new regulations are simply a smoke screen designed to trick the Zimbabwean electorate into believing that Zanu PF is serious about tackling corruption," said a statement from MDC legal secretary David Coltart. Earlier this week Mugabe created a ministry of anti-corruption and anti-monopolies programmes to be headed by a veteran politician and ruling party stalwart, Didymus Mutasa. According to the corruption watchdog Transparency International Zimbabwe (TIZ) corruption levels in the politically troubled southern African country have soared in recent years. The TIC said in a recent report that millions of Zimbabwe dollars were fleeing the country while a dual pricing system for government entities and the rest of the population was fostering a burgeoning black market for scarce goods like fuel and maize.
Top
From The Sunday Times (SA), 15 February
Sorry, I am too weak to make you tea
Without aid, when Padare dies of Aids, her family will starve
When we met Beauty Padare she was almost too tired to rise from the mat spread out on the stoep of her hut. She had just been to a funeral in a nearby village where someone had died of the illness that, in all likelihood, will claim her too in the near future. Padare was lying on a concrete floor, with an infant beside her, one of her nine dependants. She apologised for being unable to offer the unexpected visitors some mealie meal, which she called sadza, nor even a cup of tea, as local custom required. Walking to and from the funeral about 4km further down the hill that morning had sapped all the energy she could muster for a day. Padare, 45, is one of hundreds of people in the Mutasa district, about 30km northeast of Mutare in eastern Zimbabwe, whose lives depend on the United Nations' World Food Programme. From its headquarters in Mutare, the WFP distributes 4 500 tons of food a month in Zimbabwe's eastern-most province, one of five districts throughout Zimbabwe where, WFP officials believe, they are holding catastrophe at bay. Thanks to intermittent rainfall and, even more particularly, a land reform programme that has all but wiped out Zimbabwe's commercial agriculture, the WFP believes that millions of people will die within the next couple of years but for the 500 000 tons of maize, pulses, corn-soya blend and vegetable oil that it distributes each month in Zimbabwe.
The WFP monitors the distribution of its food. Our visit to Padare's hut, in the Mutasa district's village of Mawonde, was part of such a "verification" tour. But there can be little doubt that the WFP's help, and that of Plan, an Australian aid group active in the area, is needed in Mawonde. Speaking through an interpreter, and after lifting herself up from the stoep with difficulty, Padare said she was registered by the WFP as caring for nine people, including a grandchild. Her husband died three years ago, after complaining of chest pains. He went to a hospital, where tests were carried out, but he died before the results were made known, either to himself or his wife. Padare, however, knew she had Aids. So did all her neighbours, whom she had informed of the result of a test she had taken four years ago. George Mawonde, our interpreter, who lived in the area, explained that part of the community's response to this plague was to remove any stigma attached to the afflicted, adding by the way that, "I am affected by HIV too." All told, 10 people had died in his village last month , "some with Aids, and maybe age and other diseases, but most of them related to malnutrition".
Kaniz S Khan, the Bangladeshi who heads the WFP Mutare sub-office, who took us on the verification tour of Mutasa, said her organisation also needed to ascertain the HIV status of its beneficiaries. "Food aid encourages people to declare that they are suffering from Aids," she explained. Padare said her eldest son, in his 20s, had died last April and "there is no one in my family to help us". She had brothers in Harare, who sent money they earned trading in the city's flea markets, but it was not much. The WFP food saved her life, and those of her children and grandchildren. "Her family will die of hunger," Mawonde explained, "because the food on the land won't last, and she can't work anymore because of her health". This explanation satisfied Khan. Anyone able to provide for him- or herself is removed from a list of beneficiaries maintained by a verification committee, drawn from local villagers. Padare was clearly in the severest category of what the WFP calls "food-insecure people", in its distaste for blunt words like food, hunger and starvation.
Top
From The Sunday Times (SA), 15 February
The Sunday Times's Bonny Schoonakker spent a fortnight in Zimbabwe and found a country teetering on the edge.
Out in the Harare suburb of Borrowdale Brooke, which is among the most opulent suburbs in Southern Africa, the beneficiaries of President Robert Mugabe's 24-year rule over Zimbabwe can buy live oysters. The delicacies are kept in a tank at the self-contained suburb's Spar supermarket. This week they were being sold for Z$12 000 each. That's the equivalent of R20 at the prevailing exchange rate and equal to the average weekly wage of someone lucky enough to find work as a domestic worker in suburban Harare. I spent two weeks in Zimbabwe and found a land of extreme contrasts. While the super-rich enjoy lives of unrivalled privilege, millions of ordinary Zimbabweans suffer unimaginable hardships. In Mutare we met a starving woman who apologised for being too weak to rise and greet us. In another pitiful scene, a 15-month-old infant lay in an orphanage, too young to know that her parents were forced to abandon her after they were driven off their land by Mugabe's " war veterans". These are but two of the victims of the worst economic crisis since independence in 1980, which is blamed on economic mismanagement and state repression, including the seizure of thousands of white-owned farms.
But while official inflation rose to a record 622.8% last month, back in Borrowdale Brooke, the supermarket shelves are lined with every luxury an affluent shopper could desire, including a dozen varieties of olive oil, wines imported from South Africa and ciabatta bread from the supermarket's own bakery, not to mention giant prawns in the freezer next to the oyster tank. The suburb, a short distance from Mugabe's palatial retirement home and about 20km northeast of central Harare, is walled off from the general public and accessible only via a gate manned by guards. Visitors are allowed to enter only at the invitation of residents, unless they come to play golf at the course around which the complex has been built. Borrowdale Brooke's fairways are ringed by four-storey mansions, some so large they could be mistaken for hotels. Instead, they are the homes of those who have flourished in Zimbabwe's bizarre economy - politicians, stockbrokers, forex traders, businessmen on friendly terms with the ruling Zanu PF - in other words, anyone who does not depend on a salary or pension for his or her livelihood.
According to local economists, the most opulent houses in Borrowdale Brooke have been financed by Zimbabwe's bizarre foreign exchange regulations. These rules allow those politicians and businessmen closest to Mugabe to buy US dollars at the "official" rate of Z$55 to one US dollar. The black market rate for ordinary Zimbabweans was Z$4 800 on Friday. The privileges that Mugabe's allies enjoy offer instant wealth to those privileged few. They have also helped to bring about what Old Mutual Zimbabwe calls "the persisting hyperinflationary environment". In a letter circulated at the end of last year, Old Mutual advised policyholders that, "despite our best efforts", it was no longer able to protect the value of life insurance policies taken out in previous years. Pensioners who now rely on policies entered into during their working lives have been reduced to poverty. If they want to find out where all the value of their capital has gone, they might want to take a trip out to Borrowdale Brooke, if they can afford the taxi fare.
Some voices insist that Zimbabwe is on the road to recovery, notably government mouthpiece The Herald, which last week announced the build-up to Mugabe's 80th birthday on Saturday by likening him to Mahatma Gandhi. Similarly, for The Herald, the land acquisition programme "is a triumph for the country's human rights", despite overwhelming evidence that it has beggared the country's economy. Such optimism also flies in the face of the United Nation's World Food Programme (WFP). In its latest briefing, issued this month, the WFP warned that the country was "facing enormous food shortages". It predicts that 4.5 million people - more than a third of all Zimbabweans - will receive emergency food aid by April. Its briefing for Zimbabwe also predicts an 18% shortfall in the US197-million "required to fund the emergency operation". Because of its sensitive relations with the Zanu PF regime, the WFP declines to blame publicly the land acquisition programme, which h as reduced the number of commercial farmers from 4 500 to 400. But, Justice for Agriculture, which represents displaced commercial farmers, forecasts a 75% collapse in agricultural output thanks to the land invasions, a prediction supported by the semi-official Commercial Farmers' Union. But then Borrowdale Brooke has never relied on local producers for its oysters and prawns.
Top
From The Mail & Guardian (SA), 13 February
Rest in Peace
"After a long and difficult illness, freedom of the press and freedom of expression died in Zimbabwe last Friday. They were buried this week. Mourners did not include South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki and his Foreign Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma. But the workers of South Africa, its fourth estate and the legal fraternity were devastated." So might read the death notice of Zimbabwe's free press this week. After a brave court battle and international campaign, the Daily News and its sister, the Daily News on Sunday, closed their doors. Their journalists are jobless and the country without a brave voice that has sought to focus the world's attention on Zimbabwe's political and economic implosion. The Zanu PF-packed Supreme Court ruled that the Access to Information and Protection of Privacy Act (AIPPA) is constitutional, enabling "Information Minister" Jonathan Moyo to shut the newspapers because their holding company and journalists are not registered with the Media and Information Commission. Another law is in the offing, designed to complete the hatchet job. It provides that independent newspaper owners now living in South Africa must reside in Zimbabwe.
Like South Africa's independent media under apartheid, Zimbabwe's freedom sheets have become its citizens' information lifeblood. They expose the harassment, torture, detentions, rapes and other state-sanctioned abuses from which the South African government averts its gaze. They have documented every pothole in Zanu PF's journey from proud liberation movement to rampant cronyism and corruption. Decent democracies engage and persuade gadfly newspapers. Last May President Robert Mugabe promised Mbeki he would amend the AIPPA and other repressive laws. He has not done this, as he has failed to deliver on other alleged commitments. At every step Mbeki, the master-strategist, has been out-thought by Mugabe, who merely reads South African endorsement as justifying his abuses.
This week, the AIPPA judgement left Dlamini-Zuma cold. "I am not here to try to say constitutional courts [sic] of other countries are wrong. If it was happening in Britain and the Constitutional Court [sic] said it was okay, I'm sure all of you would accept it without question," she said. Shock and disgust greeted this, but should we be surprised? For years, our government has intoned: leave Zimbabwe alone; give it time; Mugabe is misunderstood and misrepresented. It refuses to view Zimbabwe through the prism of human rights, of solidarity with its people and not just its rulers, and in keeping with the principles of the African Union. Increasingly, South Africa's government is at odds with its people. The 1,7-million-member the Congress of South African Trade Unions deplored the closure of the Daily News. "The law and the judgement make it a crime for journalists to carry out their work without government permission. This is totally incompatible with universally recognised principles of the right of freedom of expression." South Africa's editors echoed the sentiments, as did the General Council of the Bar. Not all Cabinet members share Dlamini-Zuma's myopic faith in Zanu PF or her lack of passion for a free press. Reason prevailed on treatment for HIV/Aids after a lengthy struggle in the ruling party. We can only hope that the principled elements eventually win the argument over Zimbabwe.
Top
A case of true love
Ahead of Valentine's Day, we present excerpts from "Love Letters to Bob" by Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma, a selection from 2000 to 2004:
On the state licensing of Zimbabwe's journalists: "I don't see how that would in itself translate to control of the media, unless we could say here and here and here the government has refused a legal application."
On whether the registration of journalists would hamper free and fair elections: "If a journalist follows the legal process and the government still refuses to register him, and the process goes through the courts, only then would it be worrying."
On alleged plans to restore confiscated farms to white farmers: "Work is still going on to do that."
At the National Press Club: "You are waiting for condemnation of Zimbabwe. You will never hear that. It is not going to happen as long as this government is in power."
"Zimbabwe is a democracy; the president does not decree laws."
On why Zimbabwe needs more time: "Here in South Africa, you don't say you are going to change the law today and tomorrow it has been changed. But somehow you expect it to work like that in Zimbabwe."
"Zanu PF is a progressive organisation for obvious reasons."
On Zanu PF as the African National Congress's sister organisation: "We liberated our countries from the yoke of colonialism and we are set to improve the lives of our people in our respective countries."
On the alleged dialogue between Zanu PF and the opposition: "Everybody has their opening lines in negotiations. That can be overcome."
"If you have problems with the Zimbabwean government, go to the Zimbabweans. The government was elected by Zimbabweans. It was not an imposed regime."
"He [Mugabe] may not live up to the expectations of Western countries, but he is interested [in peace and stability]."
Top
From The Zimbabwe Standard, 15 February
Makamba faces 22 forex offences - Judge slams police 'high-handedness'
By Caiphas Chimhete
Prominent businessman James Makamba, who is being charged with 22 counts of externalising foreign currency, yesterday became the first victim of harsh anti-corruption regulations gazetted on Friday, when a Harare magistrate ordered his further detention in custody until February 27. Lawyers for the wealthy businessman had on Friday made an urgent application in the High Court to have him released. He had spent about 100 hours in police custody being shuttled between police cells at Harare Central, Goromonzi, Morris Depot, Tomlison, Rhodesville, Braeside and Beatrice police stations, without being charged. High Court Judge Justice Alphas Chitakunye, in his ruling over the Friday afternoon application, yesterday morning referred the matter back to the Magistrates' Court where the businessman was finally charged with 22 counts half of them in his personal capacity of externalising hard currency. Harare magistrate Jackie Mushonga ordered that Makamba be remanded in custody according to the new regulations which say a person accused of externalising foreign currency among other crimes may be detained for a period of seven days, and more days later, from the date when an order for further detention is issued. "The accused has been remanded in custody to the 27th of February of this year on the basis of the new legislation," said Mushonga, whose declaration shattered the hopes of Makamba's wife and several relatives and friends who packed Court Room 6.
The heavily-built businessman, clad in a blue bomber jacket, navy blue trousers and black shoes, was led away by prison guards. His lawyer, Godfrey Mamvura of Scanlen and Hoderness, said the police had deliberately waited for Friday's new statutory instrument on graft to come into effect in order to take away the court's power to grant Makamba bail. "I can rightly call it 'the James Makamba Statutory Instrument' - this is a gross violation of the accused's constitutional right to his liberty," said Mamvura. Under the new graft regulations, an accused person can be detained for up to 30 days before being charged if police insist they want to continue investigations. Mamvura pointed out that Makamba had voluntarily handed himself to the police when he came back from a business trip to South Africa but despite that gesture, "the police continued to treat him like a fugitive". Makamba, a former DJ and a successful self-made businessman, owns supermarkets, farms, security firms and several other properties in Bindura and Harare. He is also the non-executive chairman of mobile phone operator, Telecel Zimbabwe. Makamba is a member of Zanu PF's Central Committee, a former provincial chairman of the governing party in Mashonaland Central and a former Member of Parliament for Mt Darwin.
According to his lawyers, Makamba was arrested at 10 AM on Monday after returning from a business trip to South Africa. Police had in the meantime advertised on radio that they wanted the businessman for questioning, as if he was a dangerous fugitive on the run. Heavily armed police and CIO officers swooped on his residences and properties "armed to the teeth," according to his lawyers in the early hours of Monday morning before Makamba surrendered himself to the police. Makamba's Harare home, in the up-market suburb of Kambanji, was raided by more than 50 heavily armed police while his offices were sealed. As he arrived at the Magistrates' Courts yesterday, Makamba who was guarded by eight armed police officers tried to put a brave face but one could see a tormented soul behind his ready smile. The businessman's lawyers say he only knew of the charges that he was being held for on Friday about 96 hours after detention and said his detention was unlawful because he was a non-executive chairman of Telecel.
Earlier on yesterday, Justice Chitakunye had deplored the high-handedness of the police when dealing with Makamba. "Such conduct may tend to taint the intentions the police may allege to have," said Justice Chitakunye, making his ruling over the Friday hearing. The judge then ordered that Makamba be taken for a remand hearing at the Magistrates' Court at 12 noon yesterday, failure of which he was to be released at 12:30 PM of the same day. Opposing Makamba's application for release on Friday evening, Joseph Jagada of the Attorney General's office who constantly consulted the officer co-ordinating the investigations, an Assistant Commissioner Gora had said Makamba was externalising foreign currency between 2001 and part of 2004. "He, together with others, was selling foreign currency to Telecel Zimbabwe, at black market rates, which would externalise it," said Gora. In one case, said Gora, a Banket commercial farmer Mr Mudheredhe exported maize and deposited the proceeds in a Luxembourg Telecel account. He would then be paid in local currency using black market rates. "The case involves extra-territorial boundaries that is why it has taken long," said Gora, who added: "The police are not vindictive to Makamba. We know the contribution he has made to the country, we just want justice to prevail."
Top
From IOL (SA), 15 February
Outrage over new Zim detention law
Harare - Opponents of Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe's regime were in uproar on Sunday over new laws that allow authorities to hold suspects accused of economic crimes for up to four weeks without bail. New regulations decreed on Friday give police the power to detain for a week people suspected of economic crimes including corruption, money laundering and illegal dealing in foreign exchange and gold, even where there is no reasonable evidence of their guilt. The Presidential Powers (Temporary Measures) (Amendment of Criminal Procedure and Evidence Act) regulations also specifically disallow courts from granting suspects bail for seven days. They can be detained for another 21 days if "prima evidence" of criminal involvement is produced. The constitution allows police to hold suspects for only 48 hours. After the period expires, they have to be brought to court where they may ask for bail. Justice minister Patrick Chinamasa told reporters that "we do not want to have a situation whereby our investigating officers spend a lot of time in courts." MDC secretary for legal affairs David Coltart said in a statement Sunday that "this Draconian legislation is reminiscent of legislation used by the (white minority government of former prime minister Ian) Smith regime and the apartheid regime in South Africa to deny people their liberty." Lovemore Madhuku, head of the National Constitutional Association which is lobbying for a new democratic constitution, said the regulations "undermine the principles of the rule of law. "Police need to investigate first before they arrest, not the other way round." Human rights lawyers said they feared the decree would be used against Mugabe's opponents. "They can pick up anyone they don't like, keep them inside for a month, and then claim they are being investigated for corruption," said one who asked not to be named.
Top
From The Sunday Times (SA), 15 February
Food aid fills erstwhile export warehouse
Members of the World Food Programme (WFP) based in Mutare can scarcely believe their good luck. Out in the light-industrial area on the eastern outskirts of the town, a few kilometres from the Mozambican border, they have acquired the BMA Tobacco warehouse from which to distribute the 4 500 tons of food aid that pours into Zimbabwe's Manica province each month. According to Ibrahim Ibrahim, a WFP logistics officer, it is perfectly designed for its new role. It s capacity matches exactly the amount of food aid the WFP distributed in Manica last month. "This is a good warehouse," said Ibrahim, a Palestinian. "There is good ventilation, good stacking methods and it is easy to count the stock." He was also impressed with the good quality locks that were fitted to the shed doors. Out at the back trucks laden with 30 tons of maize donated by the US, Europe and South Africa lined up waiting to unload the food aid shipped up from Beira, 200km away. Two years ago they would be collecting produce for export from the same bays.
|
